The bar would be closed for a while, but that didn’t matter to John. He was a big fan of money, but the bar had never been about that in the first place. If he wanted money from his business, he would’ve done a better job of running the place. No, the bar had always been something to keep him busy, a way of gathering information and keeping himself sane at the same time. The money he’d received from the demon subjugation squad was more than enough to satisfy him.
So, while he didn’t need money, he did need time.
He planned to work on Prota’s abilities, helping her learn how to control the strange power she knew nothing about. Conveniently, it just so happened that he had a sentient soul that could resist Prota’s ability and stop him from dying. In this fashion, John could train Prota by experience. Simply make contact, extract Zero, control herself, and repeat until she can hold her own. It was a convenient set of circumstances. John was probably the only person who could ever train Prota like this. How simple.
Of course, when one thinks of how simple a plan is, it’s never truly that simple.
“Um… nothing’s happening,” John said after putting his hand on Prota’s head. “Hey. Zero. What’s going on?”
“Why should I tell you?”
“Wow. What a great question. You just love making everything as hard as possible, don’t you?” John grumbled, but he didn’t push any further than that.
Just because John let it drop didn’t mean that everyone else would. Prota agreed with John. Was he not here to help? It seemed like he knew what was going on. And why was John letting the subject drop so easily when he argued over even minor things? She looked up at Zero, staring at him, pleading with her eyes. No words were said, but clearly, she was accomplishing something because Zero started looking more and more uncomfortable.
“Eh… hey, Prota, I really can’t say.”
Prota continued to stare at him like a cat begging for treats.
“Ugh…” Zero held his face in his hands. “Seriously, you’re not gonna like the answer.”
Prota wasn’t going to take that.
“Really. John didn’t like it either. He still doesn’t like it.”
“Just do it, Zero.”
Zer sighed, shrugged and opened his mouth, a bored look on his face. John, too, had a disappointed look on his face as if neither of them expected the soul to speak. However, nothing of that sort happened. Zero’s mouth opened, and the words came out perfectly normal.
“Prota’s soul has been reacting to danger. Since we’ve established that you’re not a threat, it’s no longer reacting.”
Zero’s eyes shot up in surprise as if surprised by his own words. John frowned in confusion.
“Huh? What the hell? It works for her, but not me? What is this?” John exclaimed, his eyes flaring up in rage.
“...this is weird,” Zero said, frowning. “I swear it shouldn’t be-”
“Every time I ask you a question, you answer with that stupid censor beep thing, but now you answer clear as day? What the fuck? I thought we were on the same side here! Seriously, you’re a little bitch, you know that?”
“N- no, John, I swear, it’s not intentional-”
“Not intentional, my ass!” John swore. “You always do this shit, I-”
“■■■■■■■■”
There was a brief silence, filled only by the sound of Zero’s panting. He looked at John with sad eyes, trying to make him understand. And he did. John stood there, stunned. He sat down slowly, processing what had just happened.
“So I don’t get any freebies,” he said, laughing hollowly. “Right. Of course. What was I thinking?”
Prota looked at Zero in confusion as well as fear. The sound that had come out of his mouth had been a continuous beep, as if something was audibly blocking the words that were coming out of his mouth. The air in front of Zero’s mouth had also become distorted to prevent lip reading. In short, it was a full censor of information.
“I’ll explain later,” John assured Prota as he looked back up, running his hands through his hair. “It’s… it’s complicated. Well, no use crying about it right now.”
Prota didn’t want to just let it drop. What the hell? What’d just happened? John didn’t seem to pay any attention to her confusion though. In nearly an instant, he sat up, rubbing his chin as if nothing had happened.
“Anyways… it reacts to danger, so- wait. You said it’s her soul?”
“Well, yeah. What else would it be?”
“Her mana core?”
“Would a mana core have sentience like that? No. That’s her soul.”
“Could you just… I don’t know, explain her ability?”
Zero frowned. “I mean… I guess I could try. No point in giving up now, right?”
He took a deep breath, getting ready for the worst but hoping for the best.
“Prota has the ability to take mana from other beings. If they have no mana, she takes their soul instead, forcibly converting it to mana.” He paused. “Hm. How interesting. Maybe the [Author] is just trying to make things easier for us?”
John shrugged. “What, cause they can’t think of any other way to deliver the exposition? Who cares? Anyway. If it’s her soul, then why doesn’t she have control over it? Shouldn’t she be able to handle it on her own?”
“Well… it’s probably a bit like me. It has its own “ego,” so to speak, so it isn’t consciously under Prota’s control. However… right now, that ego is pretty weak. It’s conscious enough to do things without Prota telling it what to do, but not conscious enough to understand anything. It’s doing things out of instinct. She needs to overcome that instinct and handle it herself until it wakes up.”7
They were talking as if Prota wasn’t there, but she didn’t mind. If they could figure out something, anything, then it was the end result that mattered. It wasn’t like she had anything to add to the conversation anyway.
John got up and stretched. “Alright. She needs to be scared, right? So what about-”
He suddenly leapt forward, pouncing on Prota, knocking her over as he grabbed her shoulders. It wasn’t enough to harm her, but it was definitely enough to scare the crap out of her. Like before, time seemed to freeze, Zero being pulled out again.
“You could have warned me!” Zero complained, struggling again. “Do you think this is comfortable for me?”
“If I’d told you I was going to do this, it wouldn’t have been a surprise,” John pointed out. “Ok, Prota. Just like last time. Deep breaths. Focus.”
Prota nodded, getting ready to try, but then stopped as Zero had something to add. “Oh, one more thing. Prota. If you can, don’t pull all of them back this time. Try to make it so that only one tendril is still there.”
Prota frowned, but she had no reason to deny Zero’s request. It would be a little harder, but she could do it, right? That thought vanished as soon as she started the herculean task of controlling her ability. Her mind quivered under the mental stress it required. It was like trying to read a book while juggling three balls at once. Each tendril required her attention, and pulling them back one at a time wasn’t working. She needed to find a way to control them as a whole while maintaining each one as individuals.
Eventually, though, she got it. Squeezing her eyes shut, she did her best to keep that one tendril hanging on, stopping it from pulling back.
“Ah!” Prota gasped as she lost control, and the last tendril snapped back. She flinched as if expecting the recoil to actually hit her, but thankfully, nothing of the sort happened.
“Hm… it doesn’t look like she’ll get it right away,” John frowned, rubbing his chin as he watched Prota regain her breath. “Zero, what do you think?”
“It was pretty good for a first try,” Zero nodded. “Do you know how hard it is to control a soul?”
“If souls are anything like you, then yeah.”
Zero sighed. “John. You don’t control me. I’m sentient. You can talk to me, you can suggest things, but you don’t control me. Prota’s soul isn’t sentient yet, at least not at my level. She has to control it. It’s not like you and me. Seriously. You don’t get how hard it is.”
“Can’t be as hard as dealing with you,” John muttered as he got up. Zero, meanwhile, turned back to Prota.
“Hey, Prota. Do you think you send those tendrils out on your own?”
“...?”
“I mean, do you think you can have them pull at me without John scaring you like that?”
“Mm…” her half closed eyes shut fully at the question. She rocked back and forth as she pondered the question. However, after she kept them shut for a while, John started to grow bored. It wasn’t that hard, just a yes or no question-
“...John,” Zero whispered. John’s eyes snapped open, and after activating something, he could see it.
The black tendrils were coming out of her chest, slowly snaking around. Prota’s arms were out as if trying to feel the air around her, and the tendrils were slowly but surely making their way to John.
“Ha. Seriously. What was the [Author] thinking?” Zero whispered, trying not to break the small girl’s focus.
“What? Is she not supposed to learn it this quickly?”
Zero snorted. “Of course not. Well, that’s just my opinion. For her to learn something like this so quickly is surely unfair.”
“Is the ability that broken?” John frowned.
The tendrils weren’t anywhere close, leaving Zero to turn to John. The explanation wasn’t as simple as the physical one had expected.
“In a way. Let me explain her ability again. I said she can take “mana.” However, mana is a concept that exists only in this worlds like this one. If we were to move to another one without mana… it would be more apt to say she can take a person’s “energy.” What happens if they don’t have energy, though? The soul is a source of energy. So she takes that. And so far, she’s been taking it without restraint.”
John frowned. Something about that felt off.
“...soul erasure?”
“No, it’s not soul erasure. There are only a few people that can actually do that in the entirety of fiction, and that requires you know what. A soul is made up of energy, lifeforce, mana, whatever. Prota’s ability drains a person of all their energy, but because she doesn’t have control, she takes too much and drains their soul when there’s nothing left. She’s not taking the soul itself; it’s more like removing the batteries from a robot.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
John wanted to think about that, but there was no time. The tendrils found their way to Zero, and the process began all over again. They tugged, but not as hard this time, as if they were curious about what they felt rather than trying to attack.
“She’s making progress,” Zero nodded, being pulled at as if a toddler were demanding his attention. He sighed as he tugged, trying to pull away. “Give it a week. Maybe two, actually. Regardless, it won’t take that long. From there… well, you’ll see.”
~~~
Two weeks flew by in the blink of an eye. For once, John had something interesting to do. Even though the task was arduous, it was something different. No longer was he running the bar, day after day, with no goal in sight. Now, there was something to work toward.
As Zero had said, Prota had her ability almost fully under control by the end of the time period predicted. That didn’t mean she knew how to use it well. It just meant that she could control the tentacles to a certain extent.
“Well, now that that’s under control… shall we go test it on a real test subject?”
“You don’t think this is going by all too fast?” John grumbled.
“Uh… I think this is just bad writing.” Zero shrugged. “I already told you this. Well, it’s convenient, right? Would you rather spend a year or longer? Besides, you can deal with an incident if it comes your way.”
John nodded. “Well, I guess. I sure hope I can.”
Prota looked back and forth between the two of them. Writing? What? They were saying things she didn’t understand. Wasn’t writing something to do with archives and books? What did that have to do with their current situation?
“Uh… test subject, huh?” John frowned, going back to the original subject. “Like what? You want us to kidnap someone?”
“What? No!” Zero exclaimed. “Where is your brain? Right, you don’t have one. John, just find someone who can keep a secret. Why is that the first thing you think of?!”
“...my bad.”
Prota stared at John, who had a sheepish look on his face, but for a moment, she thought that he’d looked genuinely excited to kidnap someone.
~~~
“You called?” Grey said down, looking around. The bar was nearly fixed, with only a few minor reparations.
Even in a friendly, light atmosphere, the assassin of the demon cultist subjugation squad had a dark aura to him. His hood stayed up, keeping his face hidden. He wasn’t slouched nor upright, blending in, almost like a shadow, drifting in and out. Lose sight of him for one moment and he was gone the next. John hadn’t bothered to see how trustworthy his teammates were individually, but Grey seemed like the best person to rely on for something like this. It wasn’t that the others would tell.
It was just that Grey seemed the least likely to question John.
“You never call first.”
“I need a favour,” John explained, beckoning his old teammate to follow him. “It’s something I need to be kept as a secret, so…”
“My lips are sealed,” Grey nodded. His footsteps were completely silent as the two walked up the stairs to John’s room.
“Prota!” John called out before he opened the door. Grey frowned underneath his hood.
Prota?
As the door was opened, Grey saw something completely unexpected. Standing in the center of John’s room, a little girl was waiting with a calm look. As far as he knew, John didn’t associate with anyone-
“Prota, this is Grey. Grey, this is Prota, my, um, little sister.”
“You have a little sister?”
“...something like that, yeah. Ok, I just need you to sit on the sofa, yeah? You might feel a little weak, but it’ll be fine. I just wanna test something.”
“Are you sure this is safe?”
“Oh, completely. I would test it on myself, only I don’t have a mana core.”
Grey bit his upper lip. John needed a mana core? And why had he never brought up this sister of his? Sure, John’s past was something somewhat secretive, but Grey would’ve thought that he would’ve met this sister at least once. He shook his head. John had saved his hide on more than one occasion, so it was only fair that he repay the favour. Doing as he asked, he sat down on the sofa and didn’t question it any further.
“Ok, Prota,” John said. “Time.”
“His… his chest has a glowy orb. It’s dark.”
“That’s great!” Zero said in John’s mind. “That’s his mana core. Alright, just like we planned.”
John nodded at Prota, who knew what to do from that point on. Everyone in the room was still, but something was happening, and Prota was the only one who could see it. John watched as her eyes began to glow, a sign that mana was being absorbed.
“...!” Grey noticed something was off and leaned forward. “Hey, is this-”
“It’s fine,” John reassured Grey quietly. “If you really need to know, it’s mana extraction. Calm down, you’ll be fine.”
“Mana extraction…”
Signalling for Prota to stop, she withdrew the tendril and sat down.
“Good job, Prota,” John said, nodding at her. The little girl went back to the bed, opening up a book she couldn't read.
The two men went downstairs.
“Thanks, Grey. I’ll treat you to a drink sometime.”
“John, what the hell?” Grey whispered. “What was that?”
“That was mana extraction,” John shrugged. “What about it?”
“That’s a demon art!” Grey hissed. “I thought the rumours were false!”
John frowned as if he’d been accused of something insignificant. “They are false. What are you talking about? I told you, she’s my sister. If she were a demon, wouldn’t that make me a demon too? Come on, man, don’t worry about it.”
Grey pulled his hood off to reveal a troubled face. “John, you’re not that strong. You’re smart. You’re a fierce warrior. You’re incredibly deadly. But you’re not a mage. In this world, power is determined by mana. If something happens…”
“Nothing’s going to happen,” John sighed. “Ok? If something happens, I’ll take care of it.”
“...that’s what I’m worried about,” Grey said, pulling his hood back up. In a blink, he vanished into the shadows and was gone.
“Damn. I didn’t think he’d react like that,” John muttered, but there were more important things to worry about.
“It worked!” John exclaimed as he ran up the stairs, throwing open his door. “Prota! You did it!”
John knelt down and shook Prota’s shoulders. “Prota, think! You can live a normal life. You can go out and do normal people things. You don’t have to worry about any of that anymore!”
Zero snorted. “Yeah, like you would know.”
“Just because I don’t know doesn’t mean Prota can’t do it. Live a normal life. Isn’t that the best for her?”
Prota ignored their talk and instinctively tried to pull back but realized that John was fine. Right. It was ok if he touched her. He wouldn’t die.
No one would die.
As she realized that, she continued to allow herself to be shaken, only to discover that she quite enjoyed the warmth of another person. It was something she hadn’t felt for a long time. The comfort of an embrace, the loving touch of a head pat or the feeling of someone tending to her wounds…
Her fear of contact would linger, but she could do it again. She could be close to others.
“I can send you to an orphanage. I’m sorry you won’t have parents, but I’m sure you’ll be fine…”
John smiled, closing his eyes so as not to show the emptiness behind them.
“Mm…” Prota muttered, looking down. John got up and turned away.
“I’m gonna go clean up a bit more downstairs. Think about it, ok?”
He headed down the stairs, the smile on his face vanishing as soon as Prota could no longer see it.
“Hey, John. Are you sure about this? Think about it.”
“I don’t know if she’s the [Protagonist] or not, but… it’s better to let a [Character] grow up in what was supposed to be their original environment, right? It’s better not to get involved. I did enough.”
“I thought you were going to give it a try.”
“Oh. I lied.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit,” Zero frowned, popping out to face John. “Come on. What’s going on?”
“I don’t have to worry about her anymore. She can go live a normal life. I can get rid of her, and then she doesn’t have to be involved with me.” John turned away, refusing to show his face.
“Oh? And what’s prompting this?
“There’s no need to get involved with me. That’s just torture, isn’t it?”
“What, and there’s no merits to being with you either? What about everything you just did for her? The home you provided? The food you gave? The healing you offered?” Zero floated around, but John still wouldn’t face his soul. “John, do you understand what you’re doing here? Do you understand what it means?”
“It doesn’t matter. I thought it over. I can’t afford to get attached. I learned my lesson. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me, right?”
“John, that’s not-”
“I don’t want to hear it. Grey was right. She’s dangerous, just not in the way he thought.”
John spent some time in silence cleaning up the bar, restoring it to its original state, then sighed and sat in a booth. A breeze came through the holes that still hadn’t been patched up.
“What the hell am I doing…?”
You have to make a decision.
He leaned his head back and took a deep breath, closing his eyes. “I thought I was done with making decisions. I wasn’t supposed to have another companion.”
He was so entangled with his thoughts that he didn’t hear Prota walking down the stairs. It was only when she hesitantly poked his shoulder that he snapped out of his train of thought.
“Wha- holy shit, you scared me,” John gasped, practically leaping out of his seat. “What’s up?”
“I… I want to stay,” Prota said quietly. “With John.”
“I- Ok, I’m sorry, say that again? You want to what now?”
“I- I want to stay with John,” Prota said. Her quiet voice somehow seemed stronger. “I don’t want to go.”
John was taken aback. She’d never acted this adamant about anything. The only time she’d been even remotely close to this level of determination was when John wouldn’t let her eat more than two servings of dessert. What was up?
“Prota. I- staying with me isn’t that great. You’ll have to deal with people like Aiden all the time. It’s- it’s gonna hurt a lot. I know I said I wouldn’t get rid of you, but are you sure? Really. Think this through.”
Prota squeezed her eyes shut and nodded. She seemed a little scared, but that just meant that she was that much more resolved to stay with John. She wasn’t staying with him because it was nice. She really was staying with him because that was what she wanted, despite the risks.
“Can John help me… one more time?” Prota’s voice trembled, afraid to even ask the question, but she’d managed to get it out.
“Huh? With what?”
Prota opened her eyes and stared deep into John’s eyes.
“Please help me… save my sister.”